Singapore Airlines halves Elite and PPS status renewal criteria

Singapore Airlines has announced new measures to support KrisFlyer and PPS Club members to renew their tier status for those with membership years expiring between March 2021 and February 2022. This will be achieved through a ‘Renewal Support Scheme’, whereby you’ll only have to earn half as many Elite Miles or PPS Value to retain your status.

Effectively the airline is halving the renewal threshold for accounts it has already extended by a year.

The airline has also developed ways for you to have some ground-based activity assist towards meeting the annual renewal goal, in view of the uncertainty over when global air travel restrictions will ease.

These ground-based transactions will help you accrue PPS Value or Elite miles between now and 15th October 2020, however be warned they’re not all very good value!

Renewal Support Scheme

The Renewal Support Scheme has been put in place for those with tier expiry cycles between March 2021 and February 2022.

“Today, all PPS Club and KrisFlyer Elite memberships are automatically extended by 12 months when they expire between March 2020 through to February 2021.

“For memberships that expire between March 2021 and February 2022, SIA will credit 50% of the PPS Value as Reserve Value or Elite miles required for renewal into the PPS Club and KrisFlyer Elite members’ accounts respectively. As a result, PPS Club and KrisFlyer Elite members need to accrue only half of the PPS Value or Elite miles required during the membership year to retain their statuses.”

Singapore Airlines

This programme will assist members achieve renewal of their status tiers by doing the following:

For KrisFlyer Elite members:

• Gifting 50% of the required Elite miles for requalification will to your KrisFlyer account based on your membership tier and tier renewal end-date as of 8th September 2020.
• You will only need to earn 50% of the usual Elite miles required to renew your current tier membership from March 2021 to February 2022.

For PPS Club members:

• Gifting 50% of the required PPS Value for requalification to your KrisFlyer account as Reserve Value based on your membership tier and tier renewal end-date as of 8th September 2020.
• You will only need to earn 50% of the usual PPS Value required to renew your current tier membership from March 2021 to February 2022.

The airline has also put in place a range of methods for you to earn status credits without flying between now and 15th October 2020, through ground-based activity including converting your credit card points into KrisFlyer miles, spending at the KrisShop and topping up your KrisPay account.

KrisFlyer Elite Members

Singapore Airlines has already extended the status of KrisFlyer members with tiers expiring between March 2020 and February 2021 by a year.

Here’s how the Elite Miles will be credited to KrisFlyer Elite status holders through the Renewal Support Scheme.

For those whose Elite membership has already been renewed under SIA’s 1-year automatic status renewal scheme from March 2020 through to February 2021, 50% Elite Miles will be added to your KrisFlyer account as follows:

KrisFlyer Elite Silver

KrisFlyer Elite Gold

For those whose Elite membership has yet to be renewed under SIA’s 1-year automatic status renewal scheme from March 2020 through to February 2021, 50% Elite Miles will be added to your KrisFlyer account as follows:

KrisFlyer Elite Silver

KrisFlyer Elite Gold

The credited Elite miles will not count towards the Elite miles required to achieve the various Elite Gold Rewards.

PPS Club Members

Singapore Airlines has already extended the status of PPS Club members with tiers expiring between March 2020 and February 2021 by a year, by gifting the usual annual PPS Value to their accounts on top of any value they had already accrued themselves.

Here’s how PPS Value will be credited to PPS Club members through the Renewal Support Scheme to assist them when it comes to subsequent renewal.

For those whose PPS Club membership has already been renewed under SIA’s 1-year automatic status renewal scheme from March 2020 to February 2021, 50% PPS Value will be added to your account as follows:

For those whose PPS Club membership has yet to be renewed under SIA’s 1-year automatic status renewal scheme from March 2020 to February 2021:

Members with tier renewal end-date from September 2020 to February 2021 will first enjoy the 1-year automatic tier renewal.

50% of the required PPS Value will be credited in the subsequent year as Reserve Value to support your next renewal between September 2021 and February 2022:

The credited PPS Value will not count towards the tracking of PPS Value required to achieve the various PPS Rewards.

How to earn status credits on the ground

Singapore Airlines has come up with a novel way of keeping its members interacting with the scheme and the airline by adopting ways you can earn status credits on the ground, between now and 15th October 2020.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has severely affected travel demand. As it remains unclear when global air travel restrictions will ease, we have introduced the following initiatives to offer members additional ways to earn PPS Value or Elite miles that will count toward membership renewal that are due from March 2021 through to February 2022.”

Singapore Airlines

Note that Elite Miles accrued from this campaign will not count towards the attainment of Elite Gold Rewards, however PPS Value accrued from this campaign will accrue PPS Rewards, should members achieve the various PPS Rewards thresholds with their current PPS Value.

Transfer from bank partners

The first way to top up your Elite miles or PPS Value is by transferring in to your KrisFlyer account from one of your credit card points balances like Citi or Standard Chartered.

All the major banks in Singapore support KrisFlyer transfers, so this is an easy method for most of our readers, though do be aware a minimum transfer block of 50,000 miles is required.

As you can see you’ll get 2,000 PPS Value or 4,000 Elite miles for every block of 50,000 KrisFlyer miles and/or KrisPay miles converted into your account.

For example a 99,000 KrisFlyer miles transfer will only get you 2,000 PPS Value or 4,000 Elite miles. A 100,000 KrisFlyer will get you 4,000 PPS Value or 8,000 Elite miles.

Be careful: The conversions must be successfully completed by 15th October 2020 at 23:59 hours (GMT+8) to qualify. Remember lead times for most banks to actually crediting your KrisFlyer account can be a week or so.

The conversion of bank points to KrisFlyer miles or KrisPay miles via multiple bank partners can be combined cumulatively, in case like most of our readers that you have multiple ‘source’ accounts on the bank side.

The total number of ‘50,000 blocks’ you transferred should then be assessed at the end of the promotion to determine your status credit accrual (e.g. 20k + 30k + 50k as three separate transfers during the promotion should be assessed as 100,000, or two ‘blocks’).

Shop at KrisShop

For every S$1 spent at KrisShop between now and 15th October 2020 you’ll earn 1 PPS Value or 3 Elite miles.

Dollar spend refers to both purchases paid for with a credit/debit card on KrisShop and/or the dollar equivalent redeemed using KrisFlyer miles (though you shouldn’t be redeeming KrisFlyer miles this way with a lousy 0.8 cent return).

There’s also a 25% bonus if you use a co-brand card (e.g. Amex Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer credit card) to pay for your purchase.

Transfer to KrisPay

The worst idea of the lot – transferring your hard-earned KrisFlyer miles into KrisPay, where they are then trapped forever for redemption at 0.67 cents each.

On the plus side SIA is also giving you 1 PPS Value or 3 Elite miles when you earn through KrisPay, which is the only thing you should be doing in that programme before immediately transferring accrued miles into KrisFlyer.

Upper cap

Before you get too carried away thinking that your credit card points balance might be enough to upgrade your status, this promotion for earning miles on the ground is capped based on your membership tier, as shown in the following table.

For Solitaire PPS Club members and PPS Club members this cap is exactly sufficient to make up the shortfall in PPS Value through these ‘earn on the ground’ measures, however for KrisFlyer Elites they will still fall short even when hitting their cap through these transactions.

For those topping up PPS Value or Elite Miles using the ‘earn on the ground’ options, these will be credited to your account six weeks after the promotion ends (i.e. by 26th November 2020), with the exception of KrisFlyer Elite members whose qualification ends between September 2020 and February 2021, in which case they will be added by 31st March 2021.

Full details

You’ll find full details of this new program, including full terms and conditions plus a list of frequently asked questions, at the following links:

• KrisFlyer Renewal Support Scheme
• PPS Club Renewal Support Scheme
• Earn Status Credits without Flying

Summary

Most people we’ve spoken to were hoping for another ‘simple’ annual extension to their KrisFlyer or PPS Club tier level in view of the prolonged inability to travel due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

That might still happen of course, depending on how the level of flying opportunities on Singapore Airlines through next year develops.

For now a 50% status credit gift gives those with membership years ending between March 2021 and February 2022 (i.e. those already extended) some breathing room, though whether they can clock up half as much flying as usual in their membership year remains to be seen.

Singapore Airlines already announced in its April to June 2020 financial statement that it is planning for less than 50% of normal capacity by 31st March 2021, so unless significantly more opportunities to accrue status credits then become possible with a potential ramp-up of operations later next year the airline may have no choice but to gift more to its members.

In the meantime, SIA has come up with a novel way of keeping customers more actively engaged, by transferring miles into their KrisFlyer account from bank partners or generating much-needed revenue for the company through its KrisShop and KrisPay offshoots.

(Cover Photo: Brian Bukowski)